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Saturday, February 27, 2016

Sneak Peek: For the Wildings

Just to prove I've been hard at work, here's a sneak peek from For the Wildings (spoilers redacted):

Lainie
woke up on a cold stone floor in a dark room. Moonlight streamed in
through a single small window high up on the wall; more dim light shone
from somewhere behind her. Memories came to her mind, the battle with
Lord Astentias, and then a violent blast that had sent her flying –

She
sat up, groaning at the aches and pains that flared into life all over
her body, and looked around the room. The window wasn’t barred, but it
was too high and too narrow for anyone to be able to climb through.
Three of the walls of the small cell were solid, made of hard-baked mud
brick; the fourth had a door of iron bars set into it. On the other side
of the door, a barrel-chested man with the copper badge of a deputy
pinned to his vest sat at a desk, feet propped up on the desktop,
snoring softly. A half-empty whiskey bottle stood on the floor by his
chair. Lainie and Silas’s gunbelts were piled on the desk. Lainie pushed
her face against the bars to get a better look to either side of her
cell; she was on the left end of a row of four cells. “Silas?” she
whispered loudly.

His hand appeared from between the bars of the
cell at the other end. “Over here, darlin’,” he answered, likewise
keeping his voice low. “You okay over there?”

“I’m fine. I’m kind
of sore.” In truth, she felt like she had fallen off her horse.
Everything felt bumped and bruised and scraped, but at least nothing
seemed to be broken. “How are we going to get out of here?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll have us out of here right quick. Let’s be ready to restrain the good deputy there if he wakes up.”

“I
don’t think he’ll wake up; it looks like he’s got a good dose of
whiskey in him.” At that moment, the man at the desk let out a loud,
gasping snore. Lainie froze; the deputy mumbled to himself, then fell
quiet again.

Lainie let out a long breath; still, she kept a wary
eye on the deputy, a thread of power at the ready to bind him if he
woke up. A soft chunking sound came from the other end of the room, then
the barred door of Silas’s cell swung open. Noiselessly, he walked over
to Lainie’s cell and set the forefinger of his left hand against the
lock. The ring on his finger pulsed with faint light, blue streaked with
amber. With a murmured word and a slight gesture of his finger, the
tumblers in the lock turned and the lock came open.

“That was too easy,” Lainie whispered as she stepped out of the cell.

Silas nodded. “There was a charm on the locks that probably alerted someone when I opened them. We better hurry.”

They
went quietly to the desk and buckled on their gunbelts, then left the
jailhouse, managing to not wake the deputy. Outside, they stood in the
shadows of the covered walkway, pressed back against the wall of the
building, looking to see if the way was clear. “How come you never
showed me how to do that unlocking spell?” Lainie asked quietly.

“It’s
far too late to be worrying about that, Mr. Vendine.” Lainie looked
around at the dark, deserted street. The night was cold and quiet; the
moonlight shone on the snow frosting the roofs of the unburned buildings
and piled along the edges of the street. “I wonder where that boy got
to.”

“I didn’t see him in the jail,” Silas said.

Lainie’s heart froze. “I hope they didn’t hang him after they locked us up.”

“Mister?” a voice said from nearby. “Ma’am?”

Lainie
just about jumped out of her skin. She and Silas spun towards the
voice, hands instinctively going to their guns. A skinny figure stood at
the opening of the narrow gap between the sheriff’s office and the
neighboring building – Jimmo, the boy who’d nearly been hanged. Lainie
willed her heart to stop pounding like a herd on the stampede. “Thank
the gods, they didn’t hang you,” she whispered.

For the Wildings, Book 6 of Daughter of the Wildings,
coming in late March! To keep up with release news and special offers
(including a free copy of my next short-story collection, coming soon), sign up for my email alerts. No spamming, and I won't share your information.

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About Me

Kyra Halland has always loved fantasy. She has also always loved a good love story. Years ago, as a new stay-at-home mom, she decided to combine those two loves - like chocolate and peanut butter! - by writing the kinds of romantic fantasy novels she wanted to read.
Complicated, honorable heroes; strong, smart, feminine heroines; magic, romance, and adventure; deep emotion mixed with a dash of offbeat humor - all of these make up Kyra Halland's worlds. She loves sharing those worlds with readers and hopes they will enjoy her stories and characters as much as she does.
Kyra Halland lives in southern Arizona. She has a very patient husband, two less-patient cats, two young adult sons, a lovely daughter-in-law, and an adorable granddaughter. Besides writing, she enjoys scrapbooking and anime, and she wants to be a crazy cat lady when she grows up.